Ahh, the travel life. I was in Hawaii for a travel client. We shot a week of stills then I directed a week of motion on the RED (new chip). Top secret. Can’t tell you much but here is those behind the scenes shots that everyone loves.

Oh, do I understand what my clients go through when determining what ads are going to work and what are not. I advertise several places and one of the most difficult things is determining what photos to place where. Above are my ads for the US version of Archive, the German Version of Archive and At-Edge. I worked with my designer and my agent on selecting which ones we think will be the best. Below are some of the images we considered. But in the end, it is a gut feeling of what looks best. For the Art Directors out there who are reading this. How about being my focus group? Where do you go to find photographers? Web Sites? Source books? Direct Mail? Tarot Cards?

Fresh off the press is my Video Newspaper. Is that an Oxymoron? Well, I understand how difficult it is to convey your video commercials and motion work in print. I think we were fairly successful. I have been using the newspaper format to showcase my work for several years, producing about two papers a year. So I wanted to introduce my clients (and future clients) to my motion work. The paper includes a link to my videos.

Mens’ Journal hired me last summer to travel to a small town in Brazil with actor Andrew McCarthy. Andrew was there many years ago to shoot a movie. The magazine had asked him to write on a place that he would go to if he wanted to get away from it all and to “drop” out of society. Well, this place was it. Relaxed and beautiful, it had good restaurants, a nice beach, plenty of activities to do, and of course, friendly Brazilian people to watch and talk to. And no Americans! By day it was a middle class Brazilian family hang out with low rise hotels but at night, the main street turned into a sea of young people who were going from club to club. I went para-sailing, flew ultralights, rode a motorcycle on the beach, drove an ATV up into the big white sand dunes and rode a dune buggy to see the towns down the way via the beach. Fisherman got up every morning to catch the day’s fish. Life was moving fairly slowly. It’s always dry there as the town gets very little rainfall and is surrounded by huge white sand dunes. On top of the dunes the Brazilian government has installed giant wind turbines to take advantage of the constant breeze. A surprising visual at first but something to get use to as we move to a more environmentally friendly way to get our energy. Here’s a link to outtakes from the story or click the photo below:

I was shooting an outdoor party set-up for Kimpton Hotel Group at the new Eventi hotel here in New York City. It’s conveniently right around the corner from my office at 29th and 6th Avenue. The outdoor space is a patio deck area that is five stories up and I thought it would look great from the building next door. We got our models in action, lit the set-up, and then went to the roof. We didn’t need walkies for this just used our cell phones to call out directions. I love the blurs of the taxis down below. I shot from sunset until just after dusk to get a variety of light. We used hotlights and HMI so I could see the lighting ratio with my eyes and I then was able to call in for gel changes right away. These behind the scenes photos were taken by Tom Judge.

About

This is the production blog for Photographer/Director Chris Sanders; filled with mutterings and musing to ponder. Please visit his website at www.chris-sanders.com. Unless otherwise noted, all images are Copyright Chris Sanders. All uses are strictly reserved.